INNOVATIVE STUDY FINDS COVID-19 MEASURES LEADING TO SEVERE MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS IN PRISONS

1 in 3 prisoners show symptoms of “severe anxiety disorder” indicating high levels of post-traumatic stress

‘Coping with Covid in Prisons’ research has found Covid-response measures led to periods of prolonged solitary confinement across the prison population, resulting in dramatically increased levels of anxiety and depression.

The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, was a partnership between the ex-offender led charity User Voice and social scientists at the Queen’s University Belfast.

One of the most comprehensive studies of life in prison during the pandemic completed internationally, the project drew on an innovative peer-led methodology, developed by User Voice. Nearly 100 serving prisoners were trained in research methods to survey their peers. Over the 18-month project, they completed over 1,400 surveys with fellow prisoners across 11 prisons, including the women’s estate, young offender institutions, and all categories of prisons.

The unique study found that prolonged isolation and the simultaneous reduction in support services, resulted in widespread deterioration of mental health and the erosion of the rehabilitative function of imprisonment.

 Key findings:

• 85% of surveyed prisoners were confined to cells for 23 hours for the majority of the lockdown period.
• 59% of surveyed prisoners had not had a single family visit during the Covid lockdown.
• Standard wellbeing screening tools suggest depression and anxiety scores are almost 5 times higher than the standard for the general population.
• More than 1 out of 3 prisoners were scoring at the level of “severe anxiety disorder” indicating high levels of post-traumatic stress.
• Two thirds of survey respondents said that access to mental health support had worsened, instead of improving, during the lockdown.
• 1 out of 5 respondents thought that violence had reduced in the prisons because of the lockdown.

Children in the criminal justice system face many challenges that impact their progression through Education, Training and Employment (ETE). This report presents the experiences of twenty-nine children in six Youth Offending Services (YOS) across the UK. The main objectives of the research were to understand the challenges faced by children when trying to access ETE, to identify effective practice and to establish how services can achieve the best outcomes for children.

Overall, the children we spoke to had complex needs and chaotic personal lives, they were living in care, had substance misuse issues or were homeless. They also reported having learning difficulties, neurodivergent disorders and poor mental health. Anxiety was a key barrier preventing a number of the children from attending ETE, even when it was something that they genuinely wanted to do.

The children spoke of a desire to move on, they wanted to get a job or acquire a skill that they could use moving forward. However, many had a mediocre experience of ETE, with very little awareness of the ETE options, little choice in which ETE they did and no ETE plan to speak of.

The biggest issue for them, outside of their personal circumstances, was the lack of relevance or consideration for their skills, interests, abilities and circumstances. Despite a lack of relevance for many, 4 in 5 children we spoke to reported some benefit from engaging with ETE, and with the YOS more generally, particularly around soft skills. Many of the children did mention how ‘nice’ their YOS worker was and some reflected on the lengths they go to support them.

Children who had positive outcomes described not only a good relationship with their YOS worker, but also having a choice and being involved in decision making around ETE. These children had assessments and plans that they felt a part of, and their individual learning and personal needs were understood and catered to. They were developing skills in a number of areas, such as academic, behaviour and life skills, and reported feeling supported to achieve their goals.

This consultation was commissioned by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) as part of a wider review, read the HMIP report and watch the launch event.

In this report, we present the experiences of black and mixed heritage boys within youth offending services and partner agencies. The principal objectives of the consultation were to understand their experiences of going through the criminal justice system, and to identify any particular challenges they faced. Moreover, we aimed to assess the effectiveness and quality of the support received from Youth Offending Services.

On the 10th May 2021, User Voice held a series of virtual events about the transition out of COVID-19 for those in prison and on probation.

The virtual events brought together our National Service User Council and senior prison, probation, and health leaders within the Criminal Justice System.

The goal of these events was to communicate feedback from service users and to agree realistic and implementable solutions that will benefit everyone across the Criminal Justice System and the communities beyond.

Guest speakers included Amy Rees, the Director General of Probation and Wales, the Deputy Director of prisons Stephen O’Connell and Kate Davies, the Director of Health and Justice, Armed Forces and Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) for NHS England.

Having directly engaged 23,000 people in prison and probation over the course of restrictions in 2020, Council members presented the issues and proposed solutions from the service user point of view.

This report is a summary of the issues, responses and solutions discussed at these virtual events.

Neurodiversity within the criminal justice system is an under-researched but vitally important issue. Neurodiversity covers many conditions related to how the brain functions including ADHD, autism, intellectual disabilities, traumatic brain injury and motor disorders.

Estimates suggest that neurodiverse conditions are three times more common in the criminal justice system than in the general population. However, our findings indicate that there is limited screening for these conditions and the true figure may be much higher.

User Voice, a charity run by people with lived experience of the criminal justice system, directly engaged with 118 people in prison and on probation who had a diagnosed neurodiverse condition across 10 probation services in England.

This consultation was commissioned by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation as part of a wider review on neurodiversity in the criminal justice system being carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Prisons were rightly identified as a serious risk of contagion at the beginning of the COVID-19 emergency. The pandemic has seen restrictions introduced in UK prisons which wouldn’t have been out of place 100 years ago. And probation, that essential support service, was suddenly distant. What has been the effect of this on service users? How has the pandemic impacted people who are already locked down?